Tug-of-war of microtubule filaments at the boundary of a kinesin- and dynein-patterned surface

Abstract

Intracellular cargo is transported by multiple motor proteins. Because of the force balance of motors with mixed polarities, cargo moves bidirectionally to achieve biological functions. Here, we propose a microtubule gliding assay for a tug-of-war study of kinesin and dynein. A boundary of the two motor groups is created by photolithographically patterning gold to selectively attach kinesin to the glass and dynein to the gold surface using a self-assembled monolayer. The relationship between the ratio of two antagonistic motor numbers and the velocity is derived from a force-velocity relationship for each motor to calculate the detachment force and motor backward velocity. Although the tug-of-war involves >100 motors, values are calculated for a single molecule and reflect the collective dynein and non-collective kinesin functions when they work as a team. This assay would be useful for detailed in vitro analysis of intracellular motility, e.g., mitosis, where a large number of motors with mixed polarities are involved.

A Comprehensive Survey of Recent Advancements in Molecular Communication

“…In [61], it was shown that silicon nanowires covered with myosin can be used as tracks for actin filaments. Dynein molecular motor and microtubule filaments is another example of motor protein-filament motility [62]. It is also possible to use active transport in conjunction with flow based propagation in microfluidic lab-on-chip devices as was shown in [63].…”

Understanding the role of transport velocity in biomotor-powered microtubule spool assembly

“…This finding is somewhat surprising given a previous report that the number of kinesins simultaneously bound to the microtubule is inversely tuned by transport velocity, 18 and given other reports that the force propelling each microtubule depends on the number of biomotors present. 29,30 We speculate that transport velocity influences the relative probability of maximal versus intermediate force production by a group of kinesin biomotors. We are working on future optical-trapping studies to examine this potential effect of transport velocity on force production by groups of biomotors.…”

‘Switch-like’ transition from random to directed motility of microtubules by a yeast dynein

“…On the other hand, the experimental trend of χ appears to qualitatively reproduce the trend seen in simulations (Figure 7(A),(B)). In future, the predictions of simulations could be tested in experiment, potentially using methods developed recently for micro patterning motors (49,50). Additionally, the relevance of such a transition from random to directed transport as a function of motor numbers, could also be tested by quantification of the number of motors involved in vivo in MT transport.…”